1,800 Instacart workers lose their jobs. No one can agree on who fired them.

Instacart plans to lay off more than 1,800 in-store “shoppers” in March as the delivery service moves to reduce labor costs. It is less clear who is responsible for their layoff.

The 1,877 people are among the few workers at Instacart legally classified as employees, rather than contractors. They are paid by the hour, are eligible for benefits, and work in one store to pick up and pack orders that others deliver. Among them are Instacart’s only unionized workers: 10 shoppers, as workers are called, at a Mariano’s supermarket in Skokie, Illinois, and 366 in-store shoppers at Kroger stores nationwide. (Mariano’s is also a subsidiary of Kroger.)

A spokesperson for Instacart said it had fired on-demand grocery store workers who wanted their own employees to do the job rather than the delivery company. Under this model, called “Partner Pick”, employees of a grocery store use the Instacart app to process customer orders.

“As a result of some grocers transitioning to a partner choice model, we will be reducing our in-store operations at some stores over the coming months,” Instacart said in a statement.

Kroger, however, denied playing a role in the layoffs.

“The Kroger family of companies were not involved in Instacart’s decision to suspend its in-store operating model,” a spokesperson said in a statement, adding: “For those looking for an opportunity to career, we have thousands of retail positions available on jobs.kroger.com. “

More expensive workers

There are fewer than 10,000 in-store employees on Instacart’s platform, compared to half a million independent contractors, which the company calls “full-service buyers”. These workers pack groceries from many stores and deliver them to customers across the United States.

Since 2018, Instacart has reduced the number of in-store buyers on its platform because they are significantly more expensive, according to a lawyer representing Instacart. It has reduced in-store labor in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Diego, Seattle and parts of Texas.

“The current use of Instacart of [in-store shoppers] costs much more on a cost per delivery basis than using a [full-service shopper] model, ”the lawyer wrote in a letter to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents the 10 Instacart workers in Skokie.

The use of independent contractors for purchases and deliveries offers the advantage of allowing Instacart to quickly increase or reduce its on-call workforce according to the needs of the business, rather than dealing with regular employees.

Laid-off workers will be able to apply for jobs directly with Kroger or other grocery stores, and will receive severance pay of $ 250 to $ 750 each, the lawyer said.

“There was some stability”

For Noelle Marian, one of the 10 unionized workers dismissed, she appreciated its predictability. Marian has been shopping for Instacart since 2019, she told CBS MoneyWatch. She chose in-store shopping for Instacart over other types of gig work because she felt more secure working in one location and liked the stability that the job offered.

“It doesn’t pay a lot, but I am able to support myself. I can do the grocery shopping, pay for my car, pay my phone bill,” Marian said. “There was some stability, but now everything is disappearing.”

Marian also doubts that Instacart will help her find a new job given her involvement in efforts to organize workers. “I don’t think Instacart is going to give me a letter of recommendation. I hope the rest of the team won’t.”

But she fears that more and more in-store shoppers will be laid off until Instacart abandons them altogether. She pointed to the deals the company made last year with Aldi and Sprouts, in which employees of those supermarkets would make deliveries to the Instacart platform.

“I don’t think they wanted to hire people to do the actual work,” she said. “I think they used us to get data for their program and now they have that information, they kind of get rid of us systematically.”